Feb. 5, 2011
Box Score
HOUSTON, Texas -- The Utah Valley women's basketball notched its second straight Great West Conference road win, sweeping its Texas road trip with a 79-75 win at Houston Baptist on Saturday.
Sammie Jensen followed up a big performance in Thursday's win at Texas-Pan American with 23 points and 15 rebounds, her 10th double-double of the year. The 23 points was a career-high. Jensen averaged 22 points and 15.5 rebounds in the two Wolverines wins.
Abbie Beutler finished with 16 points and nine assists and was 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minute and hit two with 4.7 seconds left to clinch the victory for Utah Valley, which moves to 4-18 overall and 2-5 in the Great West.
"I thought we had a number of outstanding performances that helped lead us to the win," UVU head coach Cathy Nixon said. "Abbie had another outstanding game, as this trip has been very good for her and she basically locked the door with her free throws down the stretch. Sammie as well with her 23 points and 15 rebounds was huge for us. Overall it was a collective effort and I hope more than anything that we are learning how to win after these back-to-back victories."
Houston Baptist got a team-high 17 points from Megan Green and drops to 2-20 overall and 0-7 in conference.
The Wolverines used some hot shooting from beyond the arc in the first half to take a 42-39 lead into the break. Jenna Johnson was 4-of-5 and had 14 points and Sammie Jensen hit two of her three attempts and had 15 points by halftime.
After falling behind 11-2, UVU came right back with a 12-2 run to take a 14-3 lead. Johnson and Abbie Beutler hit back-to-back treys during the run and Jensen hit the first of her two 3-pointers to give the Wolverines their first lead.
It was back-and-forth for the rest of the half with the lead changing hands nine times. UVU was 7-for-11 from the 3-point line in the game's first 20 minutes.
After Green hit a three to start the second half for Houston Baptist, tying the game at 42, Kim Bell and Jensen both hit treys as part of a 8-2 run to give UVU its biggest lead, 50-44, to that point.
Up three with fewer than nine minutes to go, Bell connected on a pass from Jensen and Johnson hit a jumper to extend the lead to seven, 62-55. Bell pushed the lead to 10 when she drove the lane and was fouled, converting the 3-point play. Bell scored all 11 of her points in the second half before fouling out with 2:07 remaining.
Green hit a big three to get the Huskies within five, 70-65, with 3:06 that was answered on the next possession by a trey from Beutler, pushing the lead back to eight.
HBU got within four on three occasions before a steal and layup by Tia Jackson with nine seconds left made it a two-point game. Beutler, who had 19 assists in the two wins this week, then hit both free throws for the final 79-75 tally.
The Wolverines will now come home for a four-game conference homestand. UVU will start the home stetch with a contest against Texas-Pan American Sat. Feb. 12 at 4:30 p.m. in the Activity Center.
